1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to lasers and, more particularly, to a solid-state laser whose laser medium is a single crystal of ScBo.sub.3 :Cr.sup.3+ or its isomorphs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of solids, both crystals and glasses, have been found to be suitable for laser action since the first (solid-state) laser was demonstrated by Maiman in 1960. Generally, the laser-active materials involve a rare earth, actinide, or transition metal dopant in a crystalline or a glass host. An extensive treatment of then-known solid-state lasers was published in 1976--Solid-State Laser Engineering, W. Koechner, Springer-Verlag, New York. More recently, a compilation of laser crystals was presented in Laser Crystals, A. A. Kaminskii, Springer-Verlag, New York. (1981).
Among the materials which lase are a number of chromium doped materials including: garnet Gd.sub.3 Sc.sub.2 Ga.sub.3 O.sub.12 : Cr.sup.3+ (GSGG:Cr.sup.3+) (A. Beimowski et al., XIIth Int'l. Quantum Electronics Conference, Munich, June, 1982); alexandrite (BeAl.sub.2 O.sub.4 :Cr.sup.3+), a naturally occurring mineral having the chrysoberyl structures (U.S. Pat. No. Re 31,057 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,733); emerald, Be.sub.3 Al.sub.2 (SiO.sub.3):Cr.sup.3+ (M. L. Shand and J. C. Walling, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-18, 1829, November 1982); KZnF.sub.3 :Cr (U. Branch and U. Duvv. Opt. Com. 49, 61, February 1984); and ZnWO.sub.4 :Cr (W. Kolbe, K. Petermann and G. Huber, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-21, 1596, October 1985). Among the distinctive features of the alexandrite, emerald, GSGG:Cr.sup.3+ and KZNF.sub.3 :Cr.sup.3+ lasers is their tunability.